Edith K. Ackermann

Edith K. Ackermann is an Honorary Professor of Psychology, University of Aix-Marseille, France, and Visiting Scientist at the MIT School of Architecture, Cambridge, MA. Current collaborations include the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was appointed as a Senior Research Associate, in the Fall of 2012; The Exploratorium Science Museum, San Francisco, CA., and The LEGO group, DK; Previously, Ackermann was an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media laboratory, and a Senior Research Scientist at MERL – a Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory, Cambridge, MA. Before moving to the US, where she lives and works, she was a Scientific Collaborator at the Centre International d'Epistémologie Génétique, under the direction of Jean Piaget, and a Junior faculty in Developmental Psychology, both at the University of Geneva, Switserland. She earned a Doctor of Developmental Psychology [Com Laude] (1981); two Master's degrees in Developmental Psychology and Clinical Psychology (1970); and a Bachelor of Experimental Psychology degree (1969), all from the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

In her work, Ackermann teams up with partners from varying backgrounds to help shape the future of learning in a digital world, with a focus on emerging mindsets and genres of engagements in today’s changing media ecology. Two lessons she has learned: When it comes to learning and creative uses of technologies, children have more to teach adults than adults to children! When it comes to designing for others, don’t guess what they want or do what they say: co-create what they—and you—will love once it is there!